Mark Zuckerberg discusses legal challenges in Pakistan over blasphemous content lawsuit

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, recently discussed a legal battle in Pakistan, where he was sued over content deemed blasphemous on Facebook, highlighting the challenges posed by differing legal frameworks around the world.

In an interview with Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg explained how such laws, which conflict with free expression values upheld by American tech companies, add pressure on global platforms to regulate content more strictly.

“There are laws in different countries that we disagree with. For example, there was a point at which someone was trying to get me sentenced to death in Pakistan because someone on Facebook had a picture where they had a drawing of Prophet Mohammed, and someone said, ‘That’s blasphemy in our culture.’ They sued me and opened this criminal proceeding. I don’t know exactly where it went because I’m just not planning to go to Pakistan, so I was not that worried about it,” Zuckerberg said during an interview with acclaimed podcaster Joe Rogan.

He acknowledged that the situation was unsettling, particularly in terms of personal safety. “But it was a little bit disconcerting – I was like, alright, these guys are like – it’s not great (if you’re) flying over that region, you don’t want your plane to go down above Pakistan, if that thing goes through. That one was sort of avoidable.”

More broadly, Zuckerberg highlighted the increasing pressure on tech companies from governments that seek stricter content regulation. “The point is, there are places around the world that just have different values that go against our free expression values and want us to crack down and ban way more stuff than I think a lot of people would believe would be the right thing to do. To have those governments be able to exert the power of saying they’re going to throw you in prison – that’s a lot of force. I think this is one of the things that the US government is probably going to need to help defend the American tech companies for abroad.”

Earlier, on January 7, Zuckerberg announced Meta’s decision to replace its fact-checking systems on Facebook and Instagram with a “community notes” model, similar to the approach taken by Elon Musk’s X. He justified the change by stating that Meta’s fact-checking had resulted in “too many mistakes and too much censorship” and was “too politically biased.”

Following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 US presidential election, Zuckerberg met with the former president at Mar-a-Lago. According to Variety, Meta donated USD 1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, joining other major tech firms in making contributions. Zuckerberg also attended Trump’s inauguration on January 20.